'In terms of everyone having skin in the game, it’s crucial that those who have done the best lead the action.' —Public Advocate Bill de Blasio Photo: James Messerschmidt

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Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, one of the top mayoral contenders for 2013, yesterday proposed raising the city’s income tax on those earning $500,000 a year or more to fund universal pre-K classes.

The hike would raise more than a half-billion dollars a year, enough by de Blasio’s reckoning to expand full-day pre-kindergarten from the 20,000 tykes now enrolled to all 68,000 who are eligible, as well as expand instruction in middle schools.

About 38,000 kids attend pre-K part time, while 10,000 are waiting to get in, he noted.

“In terms of everyone having skin in the game, it’s crucial that those who have done the best lead the action,” de Blasio said, arguing for the tax increase in the unlikely setting of the business-friendly Association for a Better New York.

“I think it’s a fair request,” he added.

Under his plan — which would require state approval — the tax rate would go up from 3.86 to 4.3 percent on earnings above $500,000.

De Blasio also called on municipal unions to provide concessions on pension and health-care costs, saying those two expenses consume about $13 billion of the $70 billion city budget and such a spending rate is “not sustainable.”

At least three of the five major Democratic mayoral candidates have now advanced proposals for soaking the rich.

Mayor Bloomberg was having none of it.

“He wants to drive everybody out of the city,” the mayor said of de Blasio, who along with Comptroller John Liu is least likely to win Bloomberg’s endorsement as his successor.

But the public advocate said an informal survey of business friends found no resistance to the hike, which would raise $532 million a year and would sunset after five years.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a mayoral rival who has been a strong advocate for universal pre-K, applauded de Blasio for supporting an issue she said she’s been “working on for the past six years.”

De Blasio’s warning about rising pension and health-care costs sounded very much like Bloomberg’s and was surprising given his close ties to municipal labor.

De Blasio indicated he’d be a hard bargainer and would follow the path of Gov. Cuomo, who cut Medicaid spending by gathering all the “stakeholders” and setting a savings target.

“If not, I’ll come up with my own plan. I think stakeholders respond when it’s that kind of imperative,” he said.

Harry Nespoli, who heads the Municipal Labor Coalition, said union leaders are eager to work with the next mayor since they haven’t been able to achieve new contracts with Bloomberg.

But Nespoli also said the unions wouldn’t be strong-armed.

“If he [de Blasio] feels he’s going to come in and say do it this way or that way or screw you, that’s not going to happen,” vowed Nespoli.